Social Commentaries

The Higher Unity

by G. K. Chesterton 1874–1936

From Poems (1915)

Social CommentariesReligion

It was Isaiah Bunter
Who sailed to the world's end,
And spread religion in a way
That he did not intend.

He gave, if not the gospel-feast,
At least a ritual meal;
And in a highly painful sense
He was devoured with zeal.

And who are we (as Henson says)
That we should close the door?
And should not Evangelicals
All jump at shedding Gore?

And many a man will melt in man,
Becoming one, not two,
When smacks across the startled earth
The Kiss of Kikuyu.

When Man is the Turk, and the Atheist,
Essene, Erastian Whig,
And the Thug and the Druse and the Catholic,
And the crew of the Captain's gig.

✦ ✦ ✦

A satire on comparative religion prompted by a newspaper paragraph about a clergyman eaten by Polynesians. The list of faiths at the end runs from the Essene and the Erastian Whig to the Thug and the Druse and the Catholic.

MLA

Chesterton, G. K. “The Higher Unity.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/chesterton/23/.

Chicago

Chesterton, G. K. “The Higher Unity.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/chesterton/23/.

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